Parliament was quite critical of the post-Hurricane Irma rebuilding process financed from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund administered by the World Bank in Friday’s debate on the subject. The latter was generally seen as a main culprit, but also the fund’s Steering Committee and its executive arm the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB), along with – of course – the then-government that agreed to the current setup.
The slow pace of particularly roof and home as well as school repairs was particularly annoying to several elected representatives, including the meeting’s requestor Claudius Buncamper of United St. Maarten Party (US Party). Christophe Emanuel of National Alliance (NA) even suggested telling the Netherlands that St. Maarten no longer wants the World Bank, but that could put existing projects that are either underway or still in preparation at risk.
A good thing to come out of the introductory presentation by Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs (General Affairs) was confirmation there are still significant means available for new initiatives. That is important, because while accelerating existing projects in the districts is obviously highly needed, to really address the lack of reasonably-priced living accommodations that contributes to the country’s social problems new construction of affordable homes is indispensable.
This has been done before with St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) and it can happen again. The size of such a venture would allow using bigger contractors so the work is completed faster, creating more jobs in the process.
SMHDF suffers from liquidity issues especially now that many tenants are not paying their rent on time due to the coronavirus-related crisis and eviction is an unattractive option. However, it has the necessary experience and a sizeable expansion of units could help set the agency back on solid footing going forward.
There are already plans in this direction, so it seems like practically a no-brainer once deemed feasible. And if the involvement of a reputable housing foundation from the Netherlands is considered desirable, that is fine too.
In fact, at this point one could hardly think of a better way to spend money that might otherwise end up going to waste.
